Wiffleball league provides big-league backyard fun

Photos by Kyle Kurlick/Special to The Commercial Appeal
Second-grader Hank Stalnaker takes a swing at the ball during Memphis Whiffle Ball Association play in the backyard of 10-year-old league founder Trey Whidden. The summer games keep the boys playing outside and away from video games during the long days of summer.

July 20, 2013 - Spencer Stalnaker and Trey Whidden check the score of a game in the Memphis Whiffle Ball Association, a league started and run by 10-year-old Whidden. All the games are played in Whidden’s backyard. (Kyle Kurlick/Special to The Commercial Appeal)

Trey Whidden, 10, is the founder of the Memphis Wiffleball Association and the keeper of its rules. The league’s website, which Trey maintains, reminds players that his call is final.

The excitement was palpable, from the spectators in the pool to the few parents under an umbrella. The players wore homemade jerseys, swim trunks and bare feet. This was Game Day for the Memphis Wiffleball Association, founded in June by 10-year-old Trey Whidden.

Wiffleball has become an activity that keeps Trey and his friends outdoors and away from the video games and television that can dull any summer day. He did get the idea from the Internet, though.

He saw "guys in leagues and pictures on YouTube; I thought it would be kind of cool," he said. "I mostly got the idea from these kids our age in Michigan, and I got a lot of the rules and stuff for the website from them."

Not content to gather friends for a one-off game, the sixth-grader at Holy Rosary began a league consisting of four teams, each with four players. Trey put together the rosters and schedules, andnamed the teams from Major League Baseball. On any given day, the Cordova Cardinals might play the Germantown Giants. On this day, the Ripley Rangers took on the Raleigh Red Sox.

Trey's folks, Jimmy and Cynthia Whidden, own Poplar Perk'n coffee shop, and Cynthia's family's business is Landmark Heating & Air Conditioning. Thus, the games of the MWA take place on "Landmark Field at Poplar Perk'n Park," known to the Property Assessor's Office as the Whiddens' backyard in East Memphis.

"I was unaware of all the doubleheaders," Jimmy Whidden said with a laugh from his shaded seat in leftfield, adding, "but the alternative is to have them inside playing video games, so I'm fortunate enough that I get off early and I can come watch them, and I enjoy it. I like helping with the field. He tells me what to do, and I'm pretty much the groundskeeper."

In the heat of a July sun, the diamond was well-manicured, and PVC foul poles bookended the 6-foot outfield fence. The terrain is tricky: a flower bed in rightfield, the pool in left, a wooden jungle gym with a slide where a dugout might be, and a trampoline abutting the bullpen.

A golden retriever lumbered across the pitcher's mound. Stopping his windup to pet Sampson was Ranger Thomas Smith, 11, a sixth-grader at St. Louis Elementary, where he plays football, soccer, baseball and basketball.

"I just have a lot of fun," he said of his summer league.

"He'd probably be playing video games," said Thomas' father, Tom Smith. "He's busy all year long and does a lot of sports, but he's not playing a lot of the organized sports during the summer, so this is really cool. He said this is his favorite sport."

On the fence at centerfield, 69 feet from home plate, chalked hash marks keep a record of home runs. At season's end, Poplar Perk'n will donate 50 cents per dinger to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, the charity of Trey's choosing. On this day, there had been 54 home runs so far, with four more to come by game's end.

League eligibility ranges from second- to seventh-graders. The first home run of the day, a towering fly that now belongs to the neighbor, was hit by the youngest player, Hank Stalnaker, a second-grader at St. Louis.

Trey is in charge. On the league website he wrote, "No, and I mean absolutely no arguing with Trey Whidden about any rules. My call is final. I started this league."

There are no umpires, and the players were self-policed as exhibited when a seemingly foul ball ricocheted off of a pool toy. The call? Do-over.

"It's like a camp," Tom Smith said of the camaraderie among players.

"I enjoy it too," Jimmy Whidden added. "Sometimes Tom and I will cook out hot dogs for the kids after. They're only kids once; it's fantastic."

There is incentive beyond bragging rights and the home run donation to St. Jude.

The pennant, if you will, is an hour of free jump time for the winning team at Sky Zone Indoor Trampoline Park, courtesy of that facility. The Rangers are one game closer after winning that day, 10-9, though the Cardinals felt good about their chances as they climbed from the pool to take up their positions for the second game of the doubleheader.

Trey has plans to one day become a groundskeeper for a Major League Baseball team. He's got a head start amid the challenges of tree roots, azalea bushes, dog droppings and the deep end. But for this boy of summer, it's all been a labor of love and one that has the feel of the big leagues already.

"I think the other parents are pretty impressed by Trey and his ability to put this together," Jimmy Whidden said. "And I am too, really."

Memphis Wiffleball Association

Selected Rules

"You may switch batters in your at bat, but you may not switch while the pitcher is in their motion toward home."

"You must hold the bat by the handle."

"If a player catches a ball and then falls over something, it will be judge on how they caught the ball."

"If a player hits a ball into the tree/bush and it is hit hard, it is a home run. If the ball hits the tree softly and is uncatchable, it is a ground rule double. If it is catchable, the ball will be playable out of the trees."